This week’s theme
Words for people

This week’s words
quidam
rudesby
galoot
jobsworth

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(JOBZ-wuhrth)

MEANING:

noun: A petty official who insists on following trivial rules at the expense of common sense.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the expression “It’s more than my job’s worth”. Earliest documented use: 1970.

NOTES:

Picture a minor official in a petty position insisting on following the rules to a T and saying “It’s more than my job’s worth to not follow the rules (and risk getting fired).”

The term was immortalized by Jeremy Taylor’s late-60s song “Jobsworth”, a gentle roast of the man who says: “I don’t care, rain or snow, whatever you want, the answer is no.” See the performance (video, 4 min.) The word was popularized by the 1970s British TV show That’s Life!

While English speakers complain of red tape, a Dutch ad inspired a far more colorful term: purple crocodile (Paarse krokodil). This comes from an insurance company ad from 2004 where a jobsworth refuses to give a little girl her lost inflatable crocodile, which is sitting right there, until her mother fills out a form (front and back, block letters) and returns the next morning between 9 and 10 am.

If you’ve ever been told “Computer says no” or had a form rejected because you used the wrong shade of blue ink, congratulations: you’ve met a jobsworth in the wild.

USAGE:

“Can a government jobsworth tell us why we can’t hold matches in partially-filled outdoor stadiums with fans appropriately distanced and masked?”
Shougat Dasgupta; Though Games in Front of Empty Stands Make Little Sense, the Action Continues Unabated; India Today (New Delhi); Sep 28, 2020.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: